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UNITED STATES I PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. MCOAULEY, OF WIOHITA FALLS, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMES LOWENSTEIN, OF SAME PLACE.

PLACKET-FASTEN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 599,672, dated'February 22, 1898.

Application filed December 30,1896. Serial No. 617,491. (No man.)

To wZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN H. MOCAULEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wichita Falls, in the county of Wichita and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Placket-Holders; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such aswill enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of this invention is to keep the placket closed under all ordinary conditions, to allow the dress to be drawn to either side without undue strain upon the skirt-band, to keep the skirt-band at all times wholly concealed, to prevent sagging of the band at the point where its ends meet, and to secure all these advantages by a device that, will not seriously wear the fabric'by which it is concealed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the device in placket-closing position, only a small portion of the skirt and of the belt being shown. Fig. 2 shows the upper part of the device with the members in the positions they occupy when the placket is partly opened. Figs. 3 and 4 are sections upon the lines 3 3. and 4 4 of Fig. 1.

In the figures, A is a skirt, and A its band.

B is a belt, which may be a part of an upper garment or may be the common independent belt of leather or other material.

The body of the placket-holder consists of two thin fiat strips O 0', adapted to resist edgewise strain, provided with perforations permitting the convenient attachment of the dress fabric and pivoted at their lower ends to the branches of a U -shaped clip D, respectively. Above the strips are horizontal bars E E, provided upon their inner faces, respectively, with a hook F and an eye G to be engaged by said hook. These bars are also perforated, so that they may be readily sewed to the end portions of the band, respectively, and are each provided with adownwardlyextending arm G, whose lower end is pivoted at H to the upper end of the corresponding strip 0 or O, of which the arm then forms a continuation. The pivotal points are preferably below both the skirt-band and the belt B, and the axial lines of the pivots are preferably coincident in direction and parts of the same line. Each bar is also provided with an upwardly-extending arm I, adapted sion of the bands upper edge at this point is wholly prevented and the appearance of ineffectual attempts to accomplish certain results by crude devices is eliminated. By pivoting the arms G to the strips just below the belt the skirt is allowed to swing freely toward either side without either distorting the band and belt or without disclosing the presence of the strips O O. In using the U-shaped clip at the lower ends of the clips they are allowed to swing as it upon a single pivot, yet they are held apart so that there is room for inclosing them with the fabric without placing the latter in position to be subjected to undesirable strain in opening the placket or to be quickly worn by rubbing together adjacent surfaces.

All parts of the device except the vpivots may be made of thin spring-steel, and when of this material the weight and cost are both slight.

What I claim is- Y 1. The combination with the strips pivotally connected at their lower ends,of the bandbars provided with the downwardly-extending arms pivoted to the upper ends of the strips,respectively, and further provided with the upwardly-extending arms bearing devices to engage a belt or the like. I

2. The combination with the strips pivotally connected at their lower ends by a U- shaped clip, of the mutually engaging bandbars provided with the downwardly-extending arms pivoted to said strips, respectively,

andhaving at their free ends the upwardly-. extending hooked arms for engaging a belt at points upon the opposite sides of the line of the strips.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN H. MOOAULEY. Witnesses:

FRANK BROWN, R. 003B. 

